The Mac is not lacking in word processing apps, and many aim to serve a specific niche. Nonetheless, Write 2 handles most everything you'd need out of a word processor with simplicity and ease without any of the bloat.

Note: If we were including web apps, Google Docs would likely be the winner. It has the simplicity and straightforward operation that we like, but offers fantastic collaboration and sharing features. If you don't mind working in the browser, or even prefer it, be sure to consider Google Docs among your options as well.

Write 2

Features

Write 2 is not designed to replace Word. Period. But it is fast - very fast - and has a lot nifty features that will make it your tool of choice for your daily writing tasks:

iCloud, Auto Save, Versions, Resume (suppressible)

Paragraph Highlighting, Typewriter scrolling, Zoom View

Templates, Sophisticated Styles, Annotations, Comments

Header and Footer (MLA) incl. Templates, Page Numbering

Word Count and Statistics, Support for Tables, Substitutions

Read and Write Support for Word and OpenOffice Documents

Where It Excels

Write 2 offers all the important features of a great text editor. It even works with Microsoft Word, though it was never designed to replace it. The idea was to create a very simple yet powerful word processor and that's precisely what you get. Though plenty of features exist, from templates to styles to gestures to iCloud support, they all stay out of your way until you need them so you can just write.

Where It Falls Short

While creating text documents is a breeze, working with images could be a bit better. The app wasn't designed for multimedia documents, but we've all included a picture or two when necessary. In fact, Write 2's manual (which pops up the first time you use the app) is full of images. You can insert graphics no problem, but positioning them isn't as simple and intuitive as the rest of the app. You need to utilize tables in order to get things to work. I feel that if you're going to offer image support, it ought to come with at least a little flexibility.

The image issues are indicative of what might be a downside for some others: it's not a super-capable document editor like Word and Pages. The app is designed to be a word processor, not a document Swiss Army knife. If you need something with endless capabilities, this is not the app for you.

The Competition

There are many takes on what a word processing app can or should be, so while TextEdit gets the job done in many ways it may not be the right fit for what you need. While we always include the competition in our app directory posts, it's especially relevant here.

TextEdit (Free) was our previous top pick, but Write 2 offers more features that make it easier to write. It's also designed to be a Word Processor rather than a simple TextEditor. We still think TextEdit is great, however, so if you don't want to pay the measly $7 to purchase Write 2 you already have TextEdit for free. Many of the features are the same, and Write 2's advantage is partly in its user interface and organization (but that isn't to say it doesn't offer additional features as well).

Bean (Free) is very similar to TextEdit in the sense that its goal is to be a simple, no-frills, free word processing app. While we're pretty fond of Bean, TextEdit is just a little more ahead of the game with a few handy things like autosaving and document versioning.

Microsoft Word ($120-$500, depending on the license you choose) is the obvious big boy in the word processing circle. Some consider it feature-rich, others consider it bloated. Nonetheless, it's what most people use these days to handle their document creation so it's definitely worth considering even if it might be a little more than you need.

Pages ($20) is Apple's the word processing app in their office suite iWork. Strangely, TextEdit feels more like a word processing app than Pages as Pages really excels when it comes to layout. If you're going to be doing more complex documents with lots of images and styles, Pages is a really great choice. If you're just typing, it often feels like overkill.

NeoOffice (Free) is the open-source office suite that provides an app called Writer for word processing purposes. It's a pretty straightforward text editor of which I've never been much of a fan, but a lot of people like NeoOffice and it definitely has the cheapest price tag amongst office suites.

FocusWriter (Free) offers full-screen word processing that's designed to be very simple and distraction-free. It's goal is to provide you with nothing but the ability to write. While it's one of our favorites, there are many more word processing apps with the same goal. If you're looking to ignore everything but the page and your words, this is the kind of word processing app you want to use.